The Marlowes Launches Smarter, Community-Focused Parking with Hozah

The Marlowes has partnered with Hozah to deliver a more reliable, flexible and customer-friendly parking experience, replacing an underperforming legacy system with Hozah’s fully operational barrierless solution.

Located in the heart of Hemel Hempstead, the town-centre shopping destination introduced the new system on 14 November 2025, marking an important step forward by supporting increased dwell time, improved reliability, and stronger engagement with the local community.

A Clear Upgrade in Ways to Pay

Before working with Hozah, parking at The Marlowes was operated by a legacy provider that offered multiple ways to pay in theory, but struggled to deliver a reliable and intuitive experience in practice.

Before Hozah:

The previous system supported several payment methods, including permits, pay-and-display machines, a legacy AutoPay-style solution, and online payments via a mobile app.

However, ongoing technology failures, particularly around the legacy provider’s AutoPay functionality, meant the overall experience was often unreliable and confusing for customers.

Key issues included:

• Tablets and iPads frequently broke
• Unreliable payment machines
• The legacy provider’s AutoPay-style solution was fragmented, leading to incorrect charges and account issues
• Tariff changes caused friction with the local economy

After Hozah:

With The Hozah Ecosystem now in place, parking at The Marlowes benefits from a fully operational, connected solution designed around real customer behaviour.

• Hozah AutoPay enables seamless, ticketless parking for regular and repeat visitors

• Hozah PaybyWeb allows occasional visitors to pay for parking on their mobile device, without the need for account registration.

• Modern payment machines, offer a familiar on-site option for customers who prefer traditional payment methods
• Permit parking supports tenants, staff, and long-stay users.

Crucially, Hozah AutoPay works as exactly as intended, removing friction for drivers and restoring confidence and trust in the parking experience.

Addressing Operational Challenges Head-On

The move to Hozah was driven by a need to resolve long-standing operational and customer experience issues.

Technology failures, inconsistent enforcement, and unreliable payment journeys were negatively impacting both customer satisfaction and site performance. From an operational perspective, the existing system was no longer fit for purpose.

As part of the transition, Hozah:

• Decommissioned approximately 650 legacy signs
• Installed new, clearly branded Hozah signage across the site
• Introduced robust, field-tested hardware and software designed to operate reliably at scale
• Completed the core transition efficiently, with hardware and site-wide signage installation delivered in a matter of days and a full-system roll out completed in under 2 weeks.

This comprehensive reset created a cleaner, clearer, and more intuitive parking environment for all users.

Supporting a More Flexible Parking Strategy

One of the key objectives for The Marlowes was to introduce a parking model that could support multiple user types at the same time, without compromising customer experience.

Hozah’s solution at The Marlowes now enables:

• Three-tier tenant parking, including:
  • Internal retailer parking
  • High street retailer discounts
  • General public permit parking
• Validation tablets that provide free parking for a set period, while allowing drivers to stay longer and pay the difference via Hozah AutoPay or traditional payment machines

This flexible approach supports longer dwell times, increased occupancy, and improved revenue, without penalising customers who choose to stay longer.

A Launch Focused on Customers and Community

The launch was supported by a coordinated on-site and marketing campaign designed to ensure customers understood the new system and felt confident using it.

Hozah provided:

• Physical posters and on-site signage
• Digital and social media assets explaining the new parking options
• Clear customer messaging around Hozah AutoPay and Hozah PaybyWeb

Alongside the system launch, Hozah and The Marlowes also introduced a community-focused initiative. Hozah is donating 1% of AutoPay profits at the site to Alzheimer’s Society, supporting local dementia services through The Marlowes’ charity partnership.

To further encourage engagement, a Hozah AutoPay competition was launched, with all new AutoPay sign-ups entered into a prize draw to win a year of free parking. The winner will be announced soon.

Early Results Show Strong Momentum

Early performance indicators at the site are highly encouraging:

• Occupancy increased by 4% within the first two weeks
• January year-on-year revenue up 8%
• Over 1,000 AutoPay sign-ups within the first month

Customer feedback to date has been positive, with drivers responding well to the improved reliability, clearer signage, and ease of use.

A Platform for Long-Term Growth

The launch at The Marlowes demonstrates how a well-executed parking transformation can deliver immediate operational improvements while laying the foundations for long-term commercial growth.

With a stable system now in place, the centre is well positioned to continue optimising parking performance, supporting retailers, attracting destination visitors, and strengthening its connection to the local community.

Find out how Hozah can transform parking at your site